Friday, February 11, 2011
Where am I exactly?
It’s come to my attention that many people are a bit unsure and curious about where I actually am, what it’s like here, what I’m doing etc. If you are curious about these things, this post is for you.
At this moment I’m sitting on the back patio of the house where I will likely be living for the next couple years. The family I’m living with is the same family I spent most of my 1999 exchange student year with. The house and family are both nothing short of incredible (pics to come later) and I feel completely at home here. The house itself is located in the province of San Jose, Costa Rica. The city, Curridabat (commonly referred to as Curri), is somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes from downtown San Jose, the capitol. Costa Rica is directly north of Panama and directly south of Nicaragua. It is bordered by coasts to the east and west and is currently on Central Time (if I remember correctly, they do not observe daylight savings time so will switch to mountain eventually, but I could be wrong about that). The country itself is about the size of West Virginia (at least, I'm pretty sure that's what I remember reading years ago when I was studying up on it).
The province of San Jose is located almost smack in the middle of the country and makes up most of the “Central Valley.” Around the Central Valley are gorgeous, plush, teeming with life mountains. Beyond the mountains to both the east and west are virtually never ending coastlines. Depending on the area of the country you are in beaches can be white sand, black sand, or just your average tan-ish sand. In just a few hours I will be heading to Punta Leana, where my family owns a beautiful beach house that I will be chillin’ at for the weekend.
To answer a specific question I was asked, the government is indeed stable here. Costa Rica actually disbanded their military many many years ago (I want to say in the 1940s) and as result is one of the most advanced and most peaceful nations in this area of the world. As a result of being super awesome, they are subject a lot of illegal immigration from other countries in the area, particularly Nicaragua. There is currently a small border issue going on between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. (According to my Tico Mom, GoogleMaps had the border in the wrong spot and apparently Nicaragua decided that meant that the border should be where Google said it was, so they are trying to claim part of Costa Rica’s land. At least that’s the way I understood it – still working the Spanish skills).
Tuesday (Happy Valentine’s Day!) I’ll be leaving Costa Rica for a month to go to Peru. During that month I will be taking a class to get certified to teach English as a second language. The school I’m attending is in Cuzco, Peru. Cuzco’s altitude is about 10k-11k feet. While I’m there I will be staying in the school’s “family house.” While I obviously don’t really know what that means, the website describes it as a hostel style home, exclusively for Maximo Nivel (the school) students and volunteers. They usually have around 10-15 people staying there and rooms are shared by 2-3 students. I’ve been told that the food in Peru is amazing and am looking forward to the 3 meals/day provided at the family house.
There is apparently a train that goes from Cuzco to Machu Picchu, so I am looking forward to taking that trip in my spare time. I really have no idea how my time will be structured while I’m in Peru, but I’m hoping to get to see other parts of the country as well.
Internet access is pretty spotty at the beach house, so I don’t know that I will be able to post again until Sunday or Monday, but as requested, I will take lots of pics of the beach house and get them posted. I will also plan to post plenty from Peru, as the school has wifi available. Pics of the house will probably come when I get back from Peru and am a little more settled in here. I am really going to try to keep this blog thing going this time (I know… I always say that!). Questions and comments are always welcome and help keep my brain on posting.
I have finally downloaded Skype (though have yet to test it). I don't really want to post my user name on here, so if you want to set up a skype date, email me or send me a message on fb. If you have my gmail address, my user name is the same as the address up to the @. Now, my kindle and the hammock in the back yard are both calling my name.
Labels: Costa Rica, Peru
3 Comments:
I didn't know that about Costa Rica disbanding their military. Very interesting.
I also remember reading that CR is roughly the size of West Virginia. I stayed near Heredia, also 45 minutes from San Jose but to the Northwest! Have you been there? I'm going to enjoy your posts!
Amy, I remember Heredia all too well. I actually lived with 2 families during my year here in 1999. The first one was kinda crazy. They lived in Zapote, but were building a house in Heredia, so they put me in a school in Heredia. I had to take a bus from Zapote to San Jose, then walk about a quarter mile to catch another bus from San Jose to Heredia everyday just to get to and from school. Hopefully your experience in Heredia was better than mine!
When were you here? and for how long? And most importantly, if you lived in Heredia, does that mean you cheer for them? Saprissa lost to Limon the other night 0-3. Broke my heart!
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